Should Scotland have it's own top level domain

[Scottish Business Owner]

I have to admit I picked up on this a little late but I think people can still have an opinion on this. A petition was recently sent to the Scottish Government asking them to support a top level domain for Scotland. So in addition to having .co.uk you could also have .sco at the end. The campaign site for this is below.

dotSCO - The Campaign for a .SCO Internet Domain

What do people think of this idea? is it really worth it? How do people like Google adjust for the introduction of new top level domains etc?

 

[stugster]

Fantastic idea! After all, France have it! Scotland should have it too! And we shouldn't just stop there! Why not .eng and .wal? Great idea

 

[stugster]

It's a pity they pushed for the petition so quickly. By the time people were being made aware (for example your post) the petition is already closed! Could have easily doubled that number of votes in the space of a few more days.

 

[Brian McIntosh]

I'm going to be in the minority here and say no. To me that's just another level of confusion. For me having domains ending in anything other than .com and .co.uk is enough. I realise that, because of the growth of the internet, new top level domains have to be invented but it's not for me.

 

[nothing does]

I'm going to be in the minority here and say no. To me that's just another level of confusion. For me having domains ending in anything other than .com and .co.uk is enough. I realise that, because of the growth of the internet, new top level domains have to be invented but it's not for me.

I think I have to agree with you there. Makes you wonder if all this may have been created so companies could sell you more domains: 'You have .com and .co.uk so why not buy .sco too?'

When I started I bought .com and .co.uk as I felt that these were the main two. I then got a letter from a domain registration company trying to sell me .tv .mob etc.

You'll probably find that any new company buying a .sco will also buy the more established .co.uk and possible .com so what's the point?

 

[TomB]

I have to say I agree with snapper and David,

I don't think we need it. I think the .co.uk and .coms are plenty.

We don't need all these junky .eu, .mob and all that just more ways for domain companies to make more money. Or I'm sure that spammers will take advantage of it.

I don't see the point of having the same website at .co.uk, .com and .sco and surely the search engines don't like it either as its duplicate content.

But then thats just my thoughts.

T

 

[Wills]

I'd say no as well, it can only generate more confusion, the public are becoming savy to the url make up and will automatically tag on the www and .co.uk to a business name, the only people to benefit would be the ones selling the domains especially if it has your brand name and you don't want it being used by competitors.

 

[stugster]

Alison, give sexy Salmond a call and see if he'd like to have a think about it. Would be fantastic publicity for him on his Devolutionary campaign!

 

[Brian McIntosh]

As Wills says, most people will stick .com or .co.uk onto the end of a business name. I can just see myself in the future tagging .biz, .info, .mob, .sco, .eng, etc, etc onto the end of names until i stumble across the correct site. No thanks.

 

[Wills]

I don't think SEO takes the domain into account (though I could be wrong) rationalisation should be done through the page content and descriptors as it's all about driving people to our sites few will bother to look at the actual domain extension on a search return.

Still no compelling reason for me to change from a no.

 

[ScottJ]

I would not be in favour of it either, more confusion and most businesses would seem happier trading across the UK with a .co.uk and could without being told they had to buy yet another extension to protect their brand.

 

[Former Member 1]

I have mixed feelings about this one.....

The .mob .tv .eu

.blx! .... meaningless in my view. The .mob might be useful if you've a version of your site for mobile users but the rest are just 'noise' and if I see one of these suffixes I tend to start thinking 'dodgy cybersquatter'....

The .com and the .co.uk (or whatever your country identifier is) are useful. I think people will always see the .com as the top tier.....

Personally I'd go for the .sco as I see myself and my business activities as very much centred on and around Scotland. But I can certainly understand people's reservations, especially in terms of getting 'fleeced' for yet another domain name and of course there's the risk of increased cybersquatting....

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

I think Matt makes a very good point here. For businesses who's focus and main market is Scotland I think it makes good sense. It would also work for the government and various other agencies related to Scotland.

I'll be keeping an eye on whether the petition actually goes anywhere

 

[Former Member 1]

Maybe I am unduly biased, but am only just back from dealing with another 'misunderstanding' resulting from someone following wrong advice from a UK website (co.uk) which was in fact English and quoted the wrong legislation for us notb folk....

And maybe I am the only one here old enough to remember the battle that was fought (and won) to get a scot suffix on usenet....that quaint old entity which preceded life as we know it on the www.

Those were the days.....

Yes, well, you see.... This is one of the reasons why I'm drawn to the idea....

'The English' (whoever THE English are) tend to use the terms English/England and British/Britain interchangeably and tend to either forget or be blissfully ignorant of the fact the the UK is in fact composed of a group of nations. Unfortunately they also tend to promote that piece of dis-information abroad, annexing the other nations and cultures. And that attitude percolates through many aspects of everyday life.

I often find myself making the point that 'The English' have been so busy imposing themselves upon the rest of the world that they've lost sight of their own identity and their own culture; too often laying claim to what's not theirs and paying scant regard to what is! And I think this is really at the core of decreasing levels of coherence within the union. Having thought a little about this it might perhaps be an option for the .co.uk domain to be phased out to be replaced by appropriate country codes.... If nothing else to remind the English that they're JUST one component of the UK.

As for Usenet Ah those were the days indeed.... Valve Radios, Morse code, Nipkow Discs, Jumpers for goalposts

 

[SimoneNelson]

Personally I think that .sco might imply that you only want to do business within the area of Scotland - and that can rarely be the case I should imagine?!

 

[Former Member 1]

Personally I think that .sco might imply that you only want to do business within the area of Scotland - and that can rarely be the case I should imagine?!

Would it though? On the international stage I think it would strengthen the identity of many a Scottish brand. And for many B2B services (such as my own) it would help contain 'spurious' enquiries....

On balance, unless we were actually to break away from the union, I suspect it's another layer of complexity we could live without; but I am still attracted to the idea...

 

[Terry]

For me it is a definite no. I think domain extensions should really have been used for language specific sites, at the moment the whole thing is a mess with so many extensions available, so much cybersquatting and such like.

I think we can trust in Google and peoples common sense to figure out of (after finding your site) you can help them out.

And by the way seen as it was mentioned: regardless of what your domain extension is you can set which country Google should class your site as being based in; within the Google webmaster tools. This means if you had a .com you could tell Google your site was UK and not US. If you have not already done this Google uses a lot of information to guess which country specific Google search engine you site is aimed at, obviosuly the domain extension you have plays a big part in google choice although it is not the only factor.

 

[Former Member 1]

For me it is a definite no. I think domain extensions should really have been used for language specific sites, at the moment the whole thing is a mess with so many extensions available, so much cybersquatting and such like.

I think we can trust in Google and peoples common sense to figure out of (after finding your site) you can help them out.

And by the way seen as it was mentioned: regardless of what your domain extension is you can set which country Google should class your site as being based in; within the Google webmaster tools. This means if you had a .com you could tell Google your site was UK and not US. If you have not already done this Google uses a lot of information to guess which country specific Google search engine you site is aimed at, obviosuly the domain extension you have plays a big part in google choice although it is not the only factor.

Language based ...So we'd be stuck with .eng ? Oh dear!

To be serious for a moment you probably have a point; but the thing is we are where we are and this is where we have to move on from... Rightly or wrongly (and personally I come down on the side of wrongly) domain names have been 'claimed' and are sold on the basis of their role as a component of branding...

In logical terms there is no need to move beyond the functional. The argument is then essentially an emotional one. Common sense might raise no rational argument for the move. But questions of national, personal and corporate identity might...

The whole thing IS indeed a mess with many largely useless 'non natural' extensions and indeed one worry of creating national extensions for the UK countries is that it might increase 'local' cybersquatting....

 

[MarkTaylor1968]

What better time for this than now? Although, being pernickerty, could we not go for dotSCOT / .SCOT or dotSCT / .SCT - it's much catchier!

 

[Power Lunch Club]

I'm going to be in the minority here and say no. To me that's just another level of confusion. For me having domains ending in anything other than .com and .co.uk is enough. I realise that, because of the growth of the internet, new top level domains have to be invented but it's not for me.

Here here...KISS!! Keep It Simple Stupid!!

Gordon
PLC